Hopple for pacer horses



Dec. 28, 1954 R. P. EMPIE HOPPLE FOR PACER HORSES Filed Feb. 26, 19532,697,902 Patented Dec. 28, 1954 United States Patent Office l-IOPPLEFOR PACER HORSES Robert Philip Empie, Waterveliet, N. Y.

Application February 26, 1953, Serial No. 339,123

5 Claims. (Cl. 54-71) My invention relates to hopples for horses, andmore lplarticularly to hopples for maintaining the gait of pacer orses.

Conventional pacer hopples are made from straps of leather or plasticmaterial arranged to be looped around the front and hind legs of a horseand fastened together by buckles. These conventional pacer hopples arequite expensive, require constant care, inspection and readjustment, andmust be replaced fairly often if used by racing horses since thestrenuous and constant use which they normally endure during a racingseason makes them rough and irritating to the horse and causes them tostretch, weaken and sometimes break during a race.

Accordingly, one important object of the invention is to provide a pacerhopple that is strong enough to endure many years of strenuous usewithout danger of breaking.

Another object is to provide a pacer hopple that is much less expensivethan conventional hopples and is constructed from commercially availableand replaceable components such that the whole hopple need not bediscarded if one component should become defective or eventually wearout.

A further object is to provide a pacer hopple that is lightweight,flexible and comfortable for the horse.

In general, my invention comprises a pacer hopple including a strongflexible metal wire which is inserted through and is easily slideablewithin a pair of smooth flexible hoses which form the front and rear legguards of the hopple. For greater strength the metal wire is preferablycontinuous and forms a complete loop. Means are also provided foradjusting the size of the loop thus formed, thereby controlling theoverall length of the hopple.

The novel features which are believed characteristic of the inventionare set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however,together with further objects and advantages thereof may best beunderstood by referring to the following description taken in connectionwith the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 is a plan view of ahopple embodying the invention; and Fig. 2 is a sectional view of a legguard assembly included in the hopple of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawing, the invention is shown in one form embodied ina hopple comprising a flexible metal wire 11 inserted through andsupporting a front leg guard assembly 12 and a rear leg guard assembly13. Metal wire 11 may conveniently be /s in. stranded steel cable, asindicated, and forms a complete loop passing through a take-up sleeve 14located between the front and rear leg guard assemblies 12 and 13.Take-up sleeve 14 is preferably a light-weight, rust-proof metal, suchas aluminum, and functions both to guide portions of wire 11 in closeside-by-side alignment and to clamp the two end portions of wire 11 inadjustable position relative to one another, thereby controlling theoverall size of the complete wire loop and the length of hopple 10.Take-up sleeve 14 is shown as a cylindrical block 15 having threeaxially extending parallel holes 17, 18 and 19 whose diameter is largeenough to accommodate wire 11 as a close slidable fit therein. Centralhole 18 has a widened portion 20 extending to a partial depth from oneend of sleeve 14. This widened portion 20 of hole 18 snugly accommodatesa conforming stop plug 21 welded or otherwise secured to one end 22 ofwire 11. In assembling hopple 10, the other end 23 of wire 11 isthreaded through central hole 18 of sleeve 14, through one leg guardassembly 12, back through hole 17 of sleeve 14, through the other legguard assembly 13, and then back through hole 19 of sleeve 14 until stopplug 21 falls within widened portion 20 of hole 18. The excess portion16 of wire 11 extending beyond sleeve 14 is clamped to an adjacentportion of wire 11 by any suitable clamp 24 such as those commonly usedto fasten bare power or telephone cables together. Set screws 25 and 26provided in sleeve 14 are then tightened against the portions of wire 11passing through holes 17 and 19.

Leg guard assemblies 12 and 13 respectively include front and rear legguards 27 and 28 within which wire 11 is threaded. Leg guards 27 and 28may be leather coverings, but are shown as and preferably constituteplastic or hard rubber hoses such as are commonly used to pour beer orother beverages. Means, such as apertured metal blocks 29 and 30 areprovided for holding the free ends of each hose 27 and 28 together,thereby to form leg-protecting oval-shaped rings at opposite ends of theloop formed by wire 11. Metal blocks 29 and 30 are preferably aluminumand each have two adjacent cylindrical lugs 31 projecting from one sidethereof, which lugs are inserted in tight frictional engagement Withinthe opposite ends of a respective one of the hoses 27 and 28. Wire 11 isinserted within hoses 27 and 28 through suitable apertures 32 extendingthrough the projecting lugs 31 of blocks 29 and 30.

Hopple 10 is carried in a conventional manner with leg guard assemblies12 and 13 around the fore and hind legs on one side of the horse by aneck strap (not shown) inserted within a buckle 33 on front strap 34; apair of central carrying straps (not shown) inserted within buckles 35,36 on side straps 37, 38; and a rear carrying strap (not shown) insertedwithin buckle 39 on rear strap 40. Straps 34, 37, 38 and 40 are eachsecurely fastened, such as by sewing, around associated metal collars41, which, in turn, ride as free fits on wire 11. Metal collars 41 eachhave outwardly flared ends 45 to prevent straps 34, 37, 38 and 40 fromslipping off the collar. Stop members 46 and 47 clamped to wire 11 holdcollars 41 associated with side straps 37 and 38 in suitable stationarypositions against leg guard fastening blocks 29 and 30, and thereby alsoprevent any tendency of blocks 29 and 30 to move out of engagement withhoses 27 and 28. Front and rear straps 34 and 40 are inserted aroundtheir respective collars 41 through small splits 48 and 49 in the outercentral portions of hoses 27 and 28, respectively. It will beappreciated that wire 11 is threaded through collars 41 during theassembly of hopple 10.

It will thus be seen that I have provided an unusually strong hopplethat is also light-weight, flexible and comfortable. It is unusuallystrong because its principal structural component is a wire cable easilycapable of withstanding a stress of several thousand pounds which ismany times greater than that exerted by even the strongest horse. Thesize of hopple 10 is easily adjusted or readjusted by merely passingmore or less Wire cable 11 through take-up sleeve 14 and then fasteningclamp 24 and tightening set screw 26. Since there is no appreciabledeterioration of wire cable 11, take-up sleeve 14, or metal blocks 29and 30 even over long periods of time, the only components susceptibleof eventually wearing out are the leg guard hoses 27 and 28. These hosesare quite inexpensive and may be quickly and easily replaced.

Although I have described above a particular embodiment of my invention,it will be appreciated that many modifications may be made. It is to beunderstood, therefore, that I intend by the appended claims to cover allsuch modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of theinvention.

What I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent of theUnited States is:

1. A hopple for a horse comprising front and rear leg guards eachcomprising a smooth hose, and means connecting said leg guardscomprising a metal wire inserted through said hoses and extendingtherebetween to space said hoses to front and rear leg guardingpositions.

2. A hopple for a horse comprising a loop of flexible metal wire, frontand rear leg guards covering and supported on spaced portions of saidwire loop, and means for adjusting the size of said wire loop.

3. A hopple for a horse comprising front and rear leg guard assemblieseach including a smooth leg protecting covering, and a flexible metalwire inserted through and slideable within both said coverings andextending therebetween to space said coverings to front and rear legguarding positions, the opposite end portions of said Wire beingfastened together to form a complete loop.

4. LA hopple for a pacer horse comprising front and rear leg guards eachcomprising a smooth flexible hose, 2. wire cable inserted through andslideable within both said hoses and extending therebetween to spacesaid hoses to front and rear leg guarding positions, and means forfastening the opposite end portions of said wire cable together to forma loop of adjustable size.

5. A hopple for a pacer horse comprising front and rem. legguards eachincluding a hose and means for holding the opposite ends of the hosetogether to form a protective leg ring, a stranded metal wire cableinserted through and slideable within both said hoses and extend ingtherebetween to space said hoses to front and rear leg guardingpositions, and a wire take-up sleeve located between said leg guards forfastening the opposite end portions of said wire cable together inadjustable relative position, thereby to form said wire into a loop ofadjustable size.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 594,502 Trice Nov. 30, 1897 1,782,835 Wunsche Nov. 25, 1930

